Abrasax (Gk. &#913;&#914;&#929;&#913;&#931;&#913;&#926;, which is far more common in the sources than the variant form Abraxas, &#913;&#914;&#929;&#913;&#926;&#913;&#931;) was a word of mystic meaning in the system of the Gnostic Basilides, being there applied to the “Great Archon” (Gk., megas arch&#333;n), the princeps of the 365 spheres (Gk., ouranoi).[1] In Gnostic cosmology, the 7 letters spelling its name represent each of the 7 classic planets—Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.[2]The word is found in Gnostic texts such as the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit, and also appears in the Greek Magical Papyri. It was engraved on certain antique gemstones, called on that account Abraxas stones, which were used as amulets or charms. As the initial spelling on stones was 'Abrasax' (&#913;&#946;&#961;&#945;&#963;&#945;&#958;), the spelling of 'Abraxas' seen today probably originates in the confusion made between the Greek letters Sigma and Xi in the Latin transliteration. The word may be related to Abracadabra, although other explanations exist.There are similarities and differences between such figures in reports about Basilides' teaching, ancient Gnostic texts, the larger Greco-Roman magical traditions, and modern magical and esoteric writings. Opinions abound on Abraxas, who in recent centuries has been claimed to be both an Egyptian god and a demon.[3] The Swiss Psychologist Carl Jung wrote a short Gnostic treatise in 1916 called The Seven Sermons to the Dead, which called Abraxas a God higher than the Christian God and Devil, that combines all opposites into one Being.

Irenaeus tells us: "the holy Hebdomad is the seven stars which they call planets" (i. 30). It is safe, therefore, to take the above seven Gnostic names as designating the seven planetary divinities, the sun, moon and five planets. In the Mandaean system the Seven are introduced with the Babylonian names of the planets. The connexion of the Seven with the planets is also clearly established by the expositions of Celsus and Origen (Contra Celsum, vi. 2 2 seq.) and similarly by the above-cited passage in the Pistis Sophia, where the archons, who are here mentioned as five, are identified with the five planets (excluding the sun and moon).In this, as in several other systems, the traces of the planetary seven have been obscured, but hardly in any have they become totally effaced. What tended most to obliterate the sevenfold distinction was the identification of the God of the Jews, the Lawgiver, with Yaldabaoth and his designation as World-creator, whereas formerly the seven planets together ruled the world. This confusion, however, was suggested by the very fact that at least five of the seven archons bore Old-Testament names for God—El Shaddai, Adonai, Elohim, Jehovah, Sabaoth.Wilhelm Anz (Ursprung des Gnosticismus, 1897) has also pointed out that Gnostic eschatology, consisting in the soul's struggle with hostile archons in its attempt to reach the Pleroma, is a close parallel of the soul's ascent, in Babylonian astrology, through the realms of the seven planets to Anu. The late Babylonian religion can definitely be indicated as the home of these ideas.[12][edit]ZoroastrianismThe Bundahishn (iii. 25, v. z) is able to inform us that in the primeval strife of Satan against the light-world, seven hostile powers were captured and set as constellations in the heavens, where they are guarded by good star-powers and prevented from doing harm. Five of the evil powers are the planets, while here the sun and moon are of course not reckoned among the evil powers—for the obvious reason that in the Persian official religion they invariably appear as good divinities.[13] It must be also noted that the Mithras mysteries, so closely connected with the Persian religion, are acquainted with this doctrine of the ascent of the soul through the planetary spheres (Origen, Contra Celsum, vi. 22).[edit]Usage[edit]Judaism and ChristianityThe N. T. several times mentions the "prince (&#7940;&#961;&#967;&#969;&#957;) of the devils" (&#948;&#945;&#953;&#956;&#959;&#957;&#943;&#969;&#957;), or "of the (this) world," or "of the power of the air;" but never uses the word absolutely in any cognate sense. In Leviticus (LXX.) &#913;&#961;&#967;&#969;&#957; (once &#959;&#7985; &#7948;&#961;&#967;&#959;&#957;&#964;&#949;&#962;, Leviticus 20:5) represents, or rather translates, Molech. The true biblical source of the usage however is Daniel 10:13-21 (six times Theodotion; once indistinctly LXX.), where the archon (&#1513;&#1463;&#1474;&#1443;&#1512;, "prince" A. V.) is the patron angel of a nation, Persia, Greece, or Israel; a name (Michael) being given in the last case only.The Book of Enoch (vi. 3, 7; viii. 1) names 20 "archons of the" 200 "watcher" angels who sinned with the "daughters of men," as appears from one of the Greek fragments. The title is not indeed used absolutely (&#964;. &#7936;&#961;&#967;&#972;&#957;&#964;&#969;&#957; &#945;&#8058;&#964;&#8182;&#957;, &#931;&#949;&#956;&#953;&#945;&#950;&#8118;&#962;, &#8001; &#7940;&#961;&#967;&#969;&#957; &#945;&#8016;&#964;&#8182;&#957;, bis: cf. &#7985; &#960;&#961;&#974;&#964;&#945;&#961;&#967;&#959;&#962; &#945;&#8016;&#964;&#8182;&#957; &#931;.), except perhaps once (&#960;&#961;&#8182;&#964;&#959;&#962; &#7944;&#950;&#945;&#8052;&#955; &#8001; &#948;&#941;&#954;&#945;&#964;&#959;&#962; &#964;&#8182;&#957; &#7936;&#961;&#967;&#972;&#957;&#964;&#969;&#957;), where the Ethiopic has no corresponding words: but it has evidently almost become a true name, and may account for St. Jude's peculiar use of &#7936;&#961;&#967;&#942; (Jude 1:6).Christians soon followed the Jewish precedent. In the 2nd century the term appears in several writers alien to Gnosticism. The Epistle to Diognetus (7) speaks of God sending to men "a minister or angel or archon," etc. Justin (Dial. 36) understands the command in Psalms 24:7-9 (&#7940;&#961;&#945;&#964;&#949; &#960;&#973;&#955;&#945;&#962; &#959;&#7985; &#7940;&#961;&#967;&#959;&#957;&#964;&#949;&#962; &#8017;&#956;&#8182;&#957; LXX.) to open the heavenly gates as addressed to "the archons appointed by God in the heavens." The first spurious set of Ignatian epistles enumerates "the heavenly beings and the glory of the angels and the archons visible and invisible" (Ad Smyrn. 6), and again "the heavenly beings and the angelic collocations and the archontic constitutions" (i. e. order of provinces and of functions), "things both visible and invisible" (Ad Trall. 5); the meaning being lost by the time of the interpolator, who in one case drops the word out, and in the other gives it a political sense. The Clementine Homilies adopt and extend (xi. 10, &#7952;&#957; &#8069;&#948;&#8131; . . . &#8001; &#7952;&#954;&#949;&#8150; &#954;&#945;&#952;&#949;&#963;&#964;&#8060;&#962; &#7940;&#961;&#967;&#969;&#957;) the N. T. usage; and further call the two good and evil ("right and left") "powers," which control the destiny of each man, "rulers" (archons, vii. 3), though more commonly "leaders" (&#7969;&#947;&#949;&#956;&#972;&#957;&#949;&#962;).[edit]Greek theologyThe mythology of ancient Greece knew gods, daemons, and heroes. &#920;&#949;&#959;&#8054; &#7940;&#961;&#967;&#959;&#957;&#964;&#949;&#962; (ruling gods) appear in the subsequent philosophy of Plato (Phaedr. 247 A). However Philo never alludes to archons: in a single passage (De Mon. i. 1)[14] &#7940;&#961;&#967;&#959;&#957;&#964;&#949;&#962; is merely correlative to &#8017;&#960;&#942;&#954;&#959;&#959;&#953;.Presently the syncreticism of the later Greek philosophy found room for archons, which appear in Neoplatonism and claimed Plato's unwritten tradition. They are inserted by the author of the book De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum (ii. 3-9), and even it would seem by his questioner Porphyry, below gods, daemons, angels, and archangels, and above heroes (omitted by Porphyry) and departed "souls," in the scale of invisible beings whose presence may become manifest. It may be only an accidental coincidence that about the end of the 2nd century "Archon" was one of the names given by the Platonist Harpocration to the "Second God" of Numenius (Proclus in Tim. 93 C).For all the series of the ruling Gods (&#952;&#949;&#959;&#8054; &#7940;&#961;&#967;&#959;&#957;&#964;&#949;&#962;), are collected into the intellectual fabrication as into a summit, and subsist about it. And as all the fountains are the progeny of the intelligible father, and are filled from him with intelligible union, thus likewise, all the orders of the principles or rulers, are suspended according to nature from the demiurgus, and participate from thence of an intellectual life.—Proclus, The Theology of Plato[15]

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